performance as mastermind and chief promoter of the OAS resolution in 1979 which urged Chile to give Bolivia a sovereign and useful outlet to the Pacific Ocean. But Romero's most decisive performance as Minister was as the head of the democratic resistance to the military coup. On 1 November 1979, as Colonel Natusch took power by force, Ana Maria Romero bravely defended the democratic Government in radio speeches throughout that bloody day. It was she who performed the function of discrediting the versions of Guevara's resignation being put forward by the de facto regime, announcing the existence of a clandestine Constitutional Government and defending the rule of law. Years later, on 11 October 2003, the Bolivian army forces, on the orders of the Government of Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, fired on an angry crowd from the city of El Alto. The crowd had been trying to stop a convoy carrying fuel and food into the City of La Paz, which needed these supplies after several days of blockages by social movements unified around the premise of the nationalization of hydrocarbons and the convening of a new Constituent Assembly to refound Bolivia. The shooting left 29 people dead and countless wounded. In reaction to these events, Ana Maria Romero led a hunger strike calling for peace and the resignation of Sanchez de Lozada. With indigenous leaders, intellectuals, students, teachers and representatives of civil society, she spoke strongly against the violence that took place in El Alto and in defense of the large number of victims of what came to be known as the "Gas War". Thanks to her influence and steep rise in influence, Romero received numerous invitations to be a candidate for president and vice president, both from parties of the right and left, which she rejected consistently, respecting the provisions of the Ombudsman Act of Bolivia that prevents those who occupy this function to apply for any elective public office during the five years following the termination of their mandate. Despite the fact that this law violated her civil and political rights, Romero unreservedly complied, because "it was important to establish that the institution should not serve as a political springboard into politics, as was the case in other countries". After this period expired, Romero accepted an invitation from Evo Morales to run for the first Senate seat of the Department of La Paz in the December 2009 election